It means chefs preparing a menu that includes starters such as the £62.80 lobster mousse with caviar and champagne sauce, earn less per hour than the Happy Meal fastfood chain flipping hamburgers.

One chef told the Guardian: “It is clear exploitation, and inexcusable. Other restaurants pay their staff at least [the] minimum wage, even if it is a struggle for them to do so. If any restaurant can aff ord to pay their staff the legal minimum, it is Le Gavroche.”

PREDATOR EXPOSED

MAGICAL FIND

Le Gavroche declined to comment on the hours chefs had worked or effective pay rates. However, a spokeswoman said an internal review had found some staff were working “over what [Le Gavroche] was expecting them to work.

“It’s not massive amounts of hours beyond that but enough that they reviewed it and they would need to give them some more money .”

Roux shot to fame on BBC One’s Mastchef, but quit the programme in 2014 after a row with bosses over his TV ads for a potato brand.